Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The Golkar Party is maintaining its support for Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto who has already lost the backing of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle in light of his treatment of the GKI Yasmin church.

Diani, who won the 2008 election with the backing of Golkar and the PDI-P as well as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and six other small parties, has refused to comply with a Supreme Court ruling ordering him to lift a ban on the church.

Priyo Budi Santoso, a deputy Golkar chairman, said the party would first study the role of the mayor in the situation. "I will ask our faction in Bogor. We will look at the problem," he said.

"But I do suggest that whenever a legal institution such as the Supreme Court makes a ruling and it has been endorsed by a state institution such as the Ombudsman commission, the ruling should be followed, to provide a good example to the people."

In October, the Ombudsman sent a letter to the president and Supreme Court reporting the mayor's continued defiance of legal orders to unseal the church.

The PDI-P withdrew its political support for him, and the party's city councilors are planning to seek to question him on his policy and actions in the case.

Diani has revoked the church's permit, claiming that it would protect the congregation's safety amid claims of community opposition to the construction.

The Supreme Court reversed Diani's decision earlier this year, ordering the city to reopen the church. Diani argued that after the court had ordered the first decision be annulled, he had issued another letter renewing the church's closing. The second letter is now contested in court.

Yasmin's congregation has been holding prayers on the sidewalk in front of the church.